The monolithic integration of a photodetector with silicon electronics is very attractive from the standpoints of cost and yield. Monolithically integrated silicon receivers, that is silicon photodiodes, on the same chip as CMOS circuits, is an attractive alternative to hybrid receivers, e.g., InGaAs photodiodes bonded to CMOS or GaAs circuits. The monolithically integrated receivers can be fabricated using the standard silicon processes and therefore are expected to be of lower cost than the hybrid designs. Metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiodes offer planarity and compatibility with silicon Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). However, Si photodetectors have typically slow response due to long carrier life (.about.1-10 .mu.s) and low absorption coefficient (.about.10-100/cm) of light.